MaintenanceThis was just a regular maintenance, with the usual server-cleanup duties, but no changes to the game.

Summary

Update 1.6.1This bug-fix and quality of life patch will be deployed on Tuesday May 23rd. Besides many bug-fixes it will also deploy the long requested loadouts to the game.

LoadoutsWith Update 1.6.1 also comes one of the most requested features in The Division – Loadouts. No longer will you have to change every item in your inventory manually in order to switch your build; instead, you can save each build as a separate Loadout and switch between them with the click of a button (as long as you are out of combat). In total, you can save six different Loadouts.

Other changes1.6.1 also introduces better group management for Last Stand, allowing you to inspect and mute all eight members of your team.

Another new feature in Last Stand are Proficiency Marks, rewarding the player who performed the best in a given role during a match with extra points. You will be able to track Proficiency Marks on the scoreboard during a match and if you are performing really well, you might be able to get multiple ones at the same time.

Additional rewards for completely clearing a Landmark in the Dark Zone. You will get DZ experience and currency for doing them, but most importantly, you will get a non-contaminated item directly into your inventory – no need to extract it. Significant level design changes have been made to parts of the Dark Zone, like in the infamous “Coward’s Corner”, in order to limit unfair encounters.

Further balance changes include removing aim assist hip firing with a controller and changes to certain Talents. Again, we refer to the patch notes for full details of the final changes, but we want to thank the community for all their feedback. It continues to be incredibly important to us and we are very grateful that so many players take the time to play on the PTS and share their impressions with us.

ETF (Elite Task Force) CharlieETF Charlie will take place next week and it will be a workshop with 12 players from the community and the devs at Reflections Studios in Newcastle

Topics

Year 2 in general, that includes Update 1.7 / Update 1.8

Possible Bugfix and Quality of Life changes, that will be deployed between the big updates

They will test Update 1.7 and tweak the update based on the ETF feedback

ETF changes will primarily focus on Update 1.8, but now they also have enough time to implement the suggestions

It will be a mix of discussions, workshops and gameplay (Update 1.7 and some features of Update 1.8)

These are some of the workshop topics: Gear, Gear Sets, Exotics (Ninja for example), Balance, PVP, Dark Zone, Rogue Mechanics, Underground / Survival / Last Stand improvements, is a Gear Score increase or new World Tier a good idea?

Involvement of the Community

There will be a survey about the mentioned workshop topics

The link to the survey will be published when it is ready

Daily summaries and updates will be published in the official The Division Forum

Meet and Greet

There will be a Meet and Greet with the Dev Team in Newcastle

It will take place Wednesday night

They do not have a location yet, but it will be communicated when everything is organized

No State of the Game next week

On a personal noteIn addition to all that news, I can now also announce, that I will join ETF Charlie next week.

I am currently compiling all my notes to drill down to the core issues and not just the very popular and visible issues, so that we can give a big picture feedback. As mentioned before, the ETF Charlie will be under NDA, so I will not be able to go into details once the event is over and at this point I also don´t know how much I will be able to reveal. On another note, since it will be a very full schedule - I will try to get as many news and updates out as I can, but there might be a delay.